The 3rd Generation Partnership Project, also referred to as “3GPP,” is a collaboration agreement that aims to define globally applicable Technical Specifications and Technical Reports for 3rd Generation Systems. 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the name given to a project to improve the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile phone or device standard to cope with future requirements. The 3GPP may define specifications for the next generation mobile networks, systems, and devices. In one aspect, UMTS has been modified to provide support and specification for the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). In 3GPP LTE (E-UTRA and E-UTRAN) terminology, a base station is called an “evolved NodeB” (eNB) and a mobile terminal or device is called a “user equipment” (UE).
In 3GPP LTE, the eNB regularly transmits a downlink reference symbol (DLRS) that is used by the UEs for channel measurement, such as signal-to-interference ratio (SINR), which may be represented by a channel quality indicator (CQI). Each UE regularly transmits CQIs back to the eNB to enable the eNB to perform resource scheduling. Resource scheduling means the eNB allocates the modulation schemes, coding rates and subcarrier frequencies to optimize the downlink and uplink transmissions for each UE.
Frequency selective scheduling may significantly improve the system performance of broadband multi-carrier wireless networks such as 3GPP-LTE. The cost of frequency selective scheduling is uplink signaling overhead, as frequency selective CQI reports are needed at the base station. Therefore, improvements in wireless networks can be obtained by reducing the communication overhead without causing degradation in the system performance.